Donald Trump’s former accountant challenged the Republican presidential nominee’s assertion that he “brilliantly” used tax laws to avoid paying federal taxes.
“I did all the tax preparation. He never saw the product until it was presented to him for signature,” Jack Mitnick, a former Trump family accountant, told Inside Edition’s Steven Fabian in an interview broadcast Tuesday.
At a rally in Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday, the real estate mogul responded to the bombshell New York Times report published Saturday evening that disclosed a nearly $1 billion loss in 1995 that could have allowed Trump to avoid paying federal income taxes for up to 18 years.
“As a businessman and real estate developer, I have legally used the tax laws to my benefit and to the benefit of my company, my investors and my employees,” he said. “I mean, honestly, I have brilliantly — I have brilliantly used those laws. I have often said on the campaign trail that I have a fiduciary responsibility to pay no more tax than is legally required, like anybody else, or put another way: to pay as little tax as legally possible.”
But Mitnick claimed it was he who used the tax code in Trump’s favor. “Right. I’m the one who did all the work,” he said.
Mitnick confirmed the veracity of the three documents published by The New York Times. He said the software he used at the time couldn’t print enough digits to show the nine-figure loss so he used a typewriter.
“All the copies were delivered to Mr. Trump,” he added. “Who got them after that, I can’t tell you.”
